Alestle Wins 13 Illinois College Media Awards

March 4, 2015, 5:02 PM

The Alestle won 13 awards at the annual Illinois College Press Association conference in February. The Alestle earned four first-place awards, placed in six other categories and earned three honorable mentions in competition with 37 Illinois colleges and universities.

The Alestle competed in 18 categories against 13 non-daily student newspapers on campuses with more than 4,000 students including Columbia College in Chicago, Loyola University, University of Illinois Springfield, DePaul University and others. Members of the Illinois Press Association and working journalists across the country judged more than 1,250 entries for excellence.

“I’m proud of this year and last year’s staffs for such a wide variety of awards,” said Alestle Program Director Tammy Merrett. “They did some important work in in-depth reporting and photography this past year, and the awards reflect that hard work and more. And the fact that we brought home more awards than in recent years is great news as well.”

Former Copy Editor Michelle Beard won first place in the editorial cartoon category for “Tis the Season for Overlooked Holidays.”

Lifestyles Editor Caitlin Grove earned a first place award in features story for “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Student Brings his World of Photography to Campus.” Grove also won an honorable mention in feature page design for “Metro East Eats Fall Favorites.”

Photo Editor Christian K. Lee won first place in spot news photo for his work covering protests in Ferguson. He also won two second-place awards — in the photo essay and feature photo categories for coverage of the protests in Ferguson and “In Case You Missed It: Fair St. Louis,” respectively. Lee also won an honorable mention in photo essay for “Protests Arise From Grand Jury Decision in Ferguson.”

Former Editor-in-Chief Alexis Cortes, former Lifestyles Editor Karen Martin and Editor-in-Chief Hailey Huffines earned first place in news story for “A Kiss, Selfie & Invitation to Talk about God: Evangelist Elicits Unique Responses from Students.”

Cortes won third place in in-depth reporting for “We Should Probably Discuss the Future of the Museum,” a story about the future of the University museum.

Former Photo Editor Brian Armea won two third-place awards in the sports photo and general news photo categories for “Men’s Basketball Ends Four-Game Skid” and “A Kiss, Selfie & Invitation to Talk About God.”

The Alestle competes nationally against many other newspapers from across the country. Statewide, The Alestle competes regularly against such student newspapers and schools as the Bradley Scout at Bradley University, Chicago Weekly at the University of Chicago, the Columbia Chronicle at Columbia College, DePaulia at DePaul University, Chicago Flame at the University of Illinois-Chicago, The Journal at University of Illinois-Springfield, the Loyola Phoenix at Loyola University and The Independent at Northeastern Illinois University.